Cage, Maierhof, Radigue @ klub katarakt 2017

The Hamburg artists’ festival klub katarakt has presented German and world premieres of experimental music at Kampnagel every year since 2005. Due to its surging popularity, the music festival has frequently reached capacity in recent years, and therefore aims to expand its format and secure more space for staging the productions. In 2017, the festival featured two world premieres by Michael Maierhof and Eliane Radigue, and a new production of John Cage’s “103” with its corresponding film “One”.
In this late major work, John Cage allows all 103 members of the orchestra to decide – up to a certain point – when exactly and how long they wish to play the notes. There is neither a conductor nor concertmaster – each musician interprets his/her own part and takes responsibility for contributing to a well-balanced, mutually produced overall sound. The pieces by Eliane Radigue are always developed in close collaboration with the performers of the world premiere. The specific interaction of each musician with his/her instrument significantly shapes the composition, which, in turn, engages in a close relationship with the corresponding venue. In 2017, the festival presented a new piece by Radigue, commissioned by klub katarakt.
The Hamburg composer Michael Maierhof is known for augmenting the conventional instrumental range of the orchestra with everyday objects, thereby anchoring his art in acoustic reality. He, too, had been commissioned to produce a new piece for the 2017 edition of the festival. The piece has been introduced by the composer himself in a lecture and performed for the first time by the Nadar Ensemble. The three concert premieres represented a continuation of klub katarakt’s work and provided the festival with much larger formats without sacrificing its genuine experimental character.

Artistic directors: Jan Feddersen, Robert Engelbrecht
Organisational director: Ernst Bechert
Composers: John Cage (US), Michael Maierhof, Eliane Radigue (FR)
Artists and performers: Carol Robinson (FR), Julia Eckhardt (BE), Rhodri Davies (GB), Junge Symphoniker Hamburg, Nadar Ensemble (BE)